A Night of Serious Drinking by Rene Daumal

Author:Rene Daumal [DAUMAL, RENÉ]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: FIC000000, FIC019000
ISBN: 9781468304848
Publisher: The Overlook Press
Published: 2012-07-10T04:00:00+00:00

15

As I trudged along, I reflected:

“And to think we’re in an ordinary garret under the eaves of some forsaken house at some point or other of the globe and who knows if it’s a globe though it’s clearly not a point; in one small corner of a garret vast crowds of people exist or believe they exist or my eyes tell me they exist. And to think there’s no more than a steep little stairway to divide them from the smoky room below where that old man is going on about the power of words, where there’s hard drinking and to which I’m very eager to return.

“Down there, there’s thirst, thirst ever new, and candles ever guttering, though as long as they shine, however dimly, they still burn and make you thirsty.

“And up here there’s thirst slaked by illusory drinks and the dazzling light of cold electric suns. Up here, it’s cold, down there it’s dark. And the drunkest are not those who drink.”

“Have a little patience,” interrupted the orderly.

“Very soon now we’ll have been round the lot. By the way, take a look at that woman: she’s a past mistress in the art of making useless gestures.”

The woman in question, dressed in what was supposed to be a peplum, was walking up and down gesticulating on a raised platform before several hundred delighted onlookers. Using the pocket dictionary, which also gave meanings for the sign language sometimes used by the Fabricators, I am able to provide you with a reasonably accurate translation of her dumb show. But it meant something quite different no doubt both to her and the spectators.

“To begin with, you will observe,” her writhing body proclaimed “that I am very beautiful. Also supple, agile, witty, touching, and mysterious all at the same time. I can stand stiffly on the tips of my toes and let my arms drop like faded flowers without serving any purpose whatsoever. There’s nothing to force me to walk five quick steps forward, and my magnificent hair is perfectly free to fall suddenly over my face which is convulsed for no reason: it took me three years to be able to do that. If I put my fingers together in this finicky way it’s because I once saw it done by a poor superstitious barbarian who thought it a logical thing to do; I just find it pretty and don’t bother about wondering why. And collapsing thus onto the boards with one knee on the ground and only the whites of my eyes showing, this, you must agree, is awe-inspiring. I, of course, am terribly moved by it, quite filled with a totally gratuitous emotion which I shake off quickly and stretch my arms abruptly towards a sky that does not exist and, now what? what the—? Surely I haven’t run out of ideas? In that case I’ll start the same sequence again but this time I shall have my back to you. And once more, this time starting from the end.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.